


with a star's courage

by lvecean



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Aquariums, First Kiss, Flashbacks, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, MerMay 2019, Merperson Keith (Voltron), disclaimer: this is not edited, mermaid keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 18:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19068580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lvecean/pseuds/lvecean
Summary: It was still raining. Loud drops ticking against the car’s window. His fingers were tangled into thick, black strands that were still a bit damp. He petted the back of Keith’s head and looked down at the peaceful face of the mermaid in his lap.Keith’s cheek was squished against Lance’s leg. His dark eyes were watching the raindrops trail down the window. His hands were tucked underneath his chin and he was breathing softly through his mouth.





	with a star's courage

**Author's Note:**

> ehh i know i'm late ksjwksk
> 
> the ending feels,,, weird??? idk i feel like it's a completely different vibe from the rest of the story, but i'm so done with this jadlfk i don't want to work on this anymore so i'm just gonna post it  
> i might change the ending somewhere this week but i probably won't so yeah
> 
> anyways!! i hope you enjoy this big fuck you to aquariums!! also, cute mermaid keith and smitten lance :)

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ _ 　teach me the courage of the stars _ 　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

 

Aquariums at night were something Lance didn’t think he’d ever get used to, nor get enough of. 

The blue lighting that was already beautiful during the day, turned downright magical at night time. The fish swam in their tanks, lazily swishing their tails back and forth as they swirled around each other. Their multicolored scales reflecting the moonlight from above only added to the surreal state of the aquarium.

Heavy footsteps finally faded as they turned the corner, and Lance breathed a small sigh of relief. He counted to three slowly before he darted down the opposite way of the guard, into the hallway housing the jellyfish. 

The animals floated without a single care in the world as Lance quietly crept passed them —  contrast in stress level between him and the small creatures painfully obvious. He’d walked this route before — both during the day  _ and _ night — often enough for his feet to know the way without him having to guide them. But, the nightly guards that quietly walked their rounds after closing time, made it all the more difficult and challenging to arrive at his destination without being escorted to the police station. 

A quick glance to his watch (he had to practically press the small screen  _ into _ one of the tanks’ glass to be able to make out the small pointers in the dark) confirmed his suspicion that he was late. He blamed it all on the guards that seemed to have doubled in number since the last time he’d snuck in after closing time — using the perfectly legal set of keys he’d…  _ borrowed _ from one of the janitors a few months back. Before he’d left.

Chewing his lip absentmindedly he turned his head from side to side and carefully looked around the next corner. When he was sure he wasn’t going to get jumpscared by one of the old guards, he slipped around the corner and made his way over to the end of the hallway where only one heavy set of doors stood between him and his destination. 

Slowly, trying to the cease the jostling of the set of keys, Lance felt around in the dark to find the one he needed. It was bigger, heavier than the rest and soon enough his fingers closed around it. He breathed softly and took the first step towards the big doors. From here, it was just twenty meters out if the open, illuminated by small (far too small) tanks that were crammed with tiny fish on either side of the wide hallway. 

While desperately avoiding looking directly into any of the tanks and the fish that could only ever dream of the wide stretches of the ocean, he ran soundlessly from his hiding spot to the double doors. His cheap sneakers squeaked on the floor with every step he took, and he bit his lip even harder as his long legs took strides towards his destination. 

He suppressed the urge to let out all the air he was holding at the relief of having reached his target. With his back defiantly facing the tanks, he fumbled with the heavy key for a second before he felt it slide into the lock. He slowly turned it, and with one more look over his shoulder, he pushed the doors open and stepped into the room beyond. 

Aquariums at night were something Lance would never, and could never get used to. And not just because they were beyond magical and breathtaking, but also because in the dark everything was a bit scarier. And with a bit, Lance meant  _ a whole lot _ . 

The room he’d entered was one he’d spent most of his hours in the last couple of weeks. Huge tanks that reached from the bottom of the floor to the tops of the ceiling stood before him. Their inhabitants lazily flicking their tails to swim the three meters they could before having to turn around and swim  _ those same _ three meters back. 

He swallowed heavily as he watched a shortfin mako swim alongside a school of fish she’d have definitely set her teeth in, had she been raised by her shark parents in the ocean. As it was, she’d known nothing but the sloppy meat of already dead fish that, if they tasted even remotely as bad as they smelled, were absolutely disgusting. 

He had to avert his eyes. Knew he couldn’t save the animals here. And with an aching heart, he walked resolutely passed the big tanks in the front and made his way to the back of the room where he knew another set of doors awaited him. 

Fumbling again with the keys, he let a curse slip that his Mami would’ve pulled his ear for. He pushed the key in the lock, and with a heavy  _ click _ it caught and he was able to push it open. 

He ended up in the backroom of the aquarium. The ugly part the public never got to see. Where on his right were the freezers where they kept the animals’ “organic food full of all nutrients our animals need”. Nutrients Lance’s ass. All they fed the poor things were frozen fish that had long since lost their nutrient value. He’d treated more than one shark that had suffered from vitamin B deficiency. 

With a little scoff he kicked at an empty bucket of frozen fish that happened to lay in his way. The thing still reeked of rotten fish and Lance had half a mind to clean it up, but caught himself and remembered that they  _ deserved _ to have smelly buckets laying around for them to clean up. 

He cast his eyes upwards, taking in the dirty glass of the aquariums that stood tall before him. Where the public couldn’t see, it didn’t matter if things got gross. The algae that lived both on the in- and outside of the animals’ tanks were clearly having the time of their lives. The sickening green spread from the bottom all the way to the top, coloring the glass a dark green and allowing anyone trying to look through it only vague, moving blobs that resembled the living creatures. 

It was almost easy to forget his purpose of being here. All the hate he harbored for the Daibazaal Sea Worlds aquaria was being shoved to the foreground of his mind by being back here again. Lance shook his head and urged his feet to keep moving — no use dwelling on the past when his near future was going to be more risky than anything he’d done in his life. 

He passed the first few aquaria, and despite knowing exactly who occupied them, the lack of proper light — the moon shining through the water of the tanks and then through the green barrage of algae — made the black, slow-moving shapes behind the glass all the more ominous. 

Lance shivered as he passed Florona’s tank. The young narwhal moving slower than one her age should want to, but he knew she had an infection in one of the blood vessels in her tail. An infection Lance had begged and begged to be treated — sadly, to no avail. 

His destination lay just behind this one tank in front of him, in the middle of the room — its occupant the aquarium’s most prized possession. 

But — the ghost of the tank currently blocking it from Lance’s view, was like a punch to the gut. 

_ Blue _ . The appropriately called blue shark Lance had spent most of his time working with. She had been a lovely little lady — a bit over four years old and three feet long — and had, like most others of her species who were kept in aquaria, lasted about three months. At Lance’s suggestion, they’d given her a tank with one other blue shark and a few harmless fish. He knew she would’ve been eaten by the bigger sharks — her three feet not at all a threat to the bigger ones. But at Lance’s request to apply (fake) stony surfaces against the glass to make it easier for her and her friend to know where the end of their tank was, his higher-ups had refused. 

She’d died from infections and heavy abrasions caused by her bumping into the glass often enough to eventually damage her brains. 

He swallowed as he stood in front of the tank that he’d spent so much time around. The lonely blob that swam lazy circles behind the algae-covered glass made his stomach churn uncomfortably.

If he could, he would’ve taken all the sharks, dolphins and whales and taken them with him to free them in the ocean.

But, there really only was place for  _ one _ ocean creature in his car. And he’d already made up his mind which one it was going to be. 

With an aching heart, he bypassed Blue’s former tank, and walked the ten meters in between towards the very center of the room where the biggest and tallest tanks of all stood. It reached from the ceiling to lower than the ground Lance stood upon, and had an eight meter long diameter. Still, it wasn’t nearly big enough to house a creature as long as the one currently swimming lazy circles inside of it. 

Lance swallowed as he stood, stunned to silence by the big shadow that faded in and out of sight as the creature swam its circles. The tail — three meters long, and made of the prettiest red scales — dragged behind its upper body almost motionlessly. The smaller fins on either side flicked in what Lance knew was a sign of nervousness and maybe anticipation. 

His heart fluttered as he resolutely turned on his heel and stalked towards the side of the tank where a wobbly ladder allowed him to climb above ground. With shaking hands and a hammering heart, he pushed the last key into the lock and pushed the door open as soon as it allowed him to. 

The cold night’s air hit him hard as he walked onto the tight steel platforms that connected the different pools with each other, and allowed the animal’s caretakers to reach the individual pools. 

Lance had barely had the chance to close the door behind him, when he heard a loud splash on his right. His lips curled into a smile involuntarily at the sound and he quickly shut the door before turning around. 

Violet eyes peered up at him from the dark surface of the water. All Lance could see was the top of a with black hair covered head and those glaring eyes. 

Lance sighed, unable to get his smile to vanish, and rolled his eyes fondly at the annoyed creature in front of him. 

“I know. I know,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender as he walked closer to the edge of the pool. “I know I’m late. But I tried my best, okay?” Carefully, he sank to his knees just a few meters from the floating head. 

When the creature continued to blink up at him without showing any sign of recognition, Lance rolled his eyes again. 

“Are we really going to do this?” He sighed again, a bit louder and more exasperated this time as he reached inside his pocket to grab the thing the creature was wordlessly asking him for. 

He’d barely pulled the small plastic bag out of his pocket, before a pale, webbed hand shot out and fished it out of his hands. 

Chuckling softly to himself, Lance watched as the mermaid struggled with the plastic. His dark brows were furrowed in concentration as he fiddled to untie the small knot properly. He lasted about thirty seconds before his patience ran out and he tore it open with his sharp teeth. 

When the first drops of the strawberry’s sweetness touched the mermaid’s tongue, he groaned and stuffed the entire thing in his mouth. 

“Hey,” Lance said. “Don’t you have any manners?” 

The mermaid glared at him and protectively shielded his bag with strawberries as if Lance could reach across the two meters of water in between them to take it back. 

He watched in silence as the mermaid munched on his strawberries. Pink lips wrapping around the red fruit and a sharp tongue flicked out between them to catch the juice that dribbled down his chin. The only sources of light were the moon and her stars, and Lance was convinced Keith had never looked this beautiful in all of his life. 

The contrast between the hissy, bity mermaid Lance had met all those weeks ago, and this much softer and gentler mermaid that was perfectly content with just his bag of strawberries, made Lance huff out a quiet laugh. 

He’d met Keith the mermaid in his second month of working at the aquarium. It was their newest and proudest catch: the first red-scaled open ocean mermaid to have ever been seen. There were known to be several species of open ocean mermaids, all varying shades of blue and teal. But this one, Keith, had scales colored an atypical shade of bright red. His belly lighter than his back, and strong fins to go against the ocean’s currents. 

Keith really was a beautiful creature. Far too beautiful to spend the rest of his life in captivity. 

With a soft smile, Lance watched as Keith finished the strawberries. He put the green parts back in the plastic bag and then carefully swam forward to place the bag at Lance feet. Lance’s smile involuntarily widened at the sight of those purple eyes looking up at him from the water. With a small chirp, Keith gave the bag a little shove to indicate that it was Lance’s again. 

Lance chuckled and stuffed the small bag in his pocket again. 

Honestly, he was just glad Keith was eating again. He could still vividly remember when the two had first met—

— _ Lance shivered as the cold seeped through his sweater. The bucket of smelly fish sloshed dirty water over his shoes, and he groaned as he felt it seep through the material and straight into his socks. He was halfway through his complete arsenal of curses, when he stilled in his movements and fell silent.  _

_ Two violet eyes were glaring up at him from the big, blank tank in the middle. Lance walked two steps and the eyes followed him. Despite never having worked with the mermaid, Lance had heard rumors about him. He knew the creature hadn’t eaten one bite of fish ever since he’d gotten here.  _

_ “Are you hungry?” Lance had asked. “I bet you are, aren’t you?” He smiled sadly as he envisioned the way the creature’s ribs were visible and his tail had lost its healthy gleam. “Do you want some fish?” Despite the creature’s lack of response, Lance reached inside the bucket and pulled out one of the slimy fish. “I know,” he chuckled, wiggling the disgusting fish in the air, “it doesn’t look very tasty but, it’s good for you.” When the silence dragged on, Lance eventually just threw the fish in the tank.  _

_ It plunged into the air with a loud splash. _

_ The mermaid did not move.  _

_ Lance winced. “Yeah. I thought so.” With a heavy sigh and worry clenching his gut, he tried to think of a way to make the fish look appealing to the mermaid.  _

_ With a little sound of victory, Lance dropped the bucket to the floor and scrambled to feel the insides of his pockets. He pulled out a small plastic bag with some red things in it. Strawberries. The things were pressed together, forming sticky mess of strawberry juices, but he didn’t think the mermaid would be too picky.  _

_ “Ehh,” he held the little bag open in front of the water. “I don’t know if you like it but, I’ve got some fruit for you? If you want?”  _

_ The mermaid did not react, kept glaring at Lance from a safe distance away.  _

_ Lance held the bag up for a few more minutes before giving up and placing it on the edge of the steel platform. He picked up the bucket again, and continued his way to the other tanks to feed the other animals.  _

_ The next day he heard Sendak complaining about someone leaving an empty plastic bag outside of the mermaid’s tank. Lance had smiled _ — 

Lance looked at his friend. The dark circles underneath his eyes, the sickening, gray of his skin and the dull color of his once so vibrantly red tail. His tail was battered and littered with small bruises and gaps where scales had been ripped out for the sake of research and experiments. 

And still—despite all the horrors the mermaid boy had suffered—he was smiling up at Lance like he had just gifted him all the stars in the sky. Which, might not be far from the truth. God knows this mermaid loved his strawberries. 

As Keith stared up at him with those big, purple eyes of his, Lance couldn’t help but let his smile dip just slightly at the thought of missing Keith at the aquarium. If everything would go according to plan, the mermaid would be back in the ocean within the next eight hours. Finally free again after months of living in the small tank. 

Lance hoped with all of his heart that he’d get to see Keith swim and hunt with his bottlenose dolphin friends, dart through the sea grass to catch crabs and explore the many mangroves in the area. 

The mermaid chirped again, effectively cutting off Lance’s wandering mind and urging the man to focus on him again. It was only then that he noticed the fat water droplets falling out of the sky. He smiled and looked down at Keith in front of him. The mermaid had his mouth spread open wide, teeth that would’ve once upon a time made Lance shiver and retract his finger just a tad faster, pulled out for the world to see. A red tongue stuck out and wiggled weirdly in the air as Keith tried to catch the rain.

And Lance couldn’t help it. He bursted out laughing at the sight. He was absolutely convinced that he was the only human on the planet who’d ever watched a scene like this. A powerful, strong and widely feared open ocean mermaid that was known for being temperamental and aggressive, was pulling the weirdest face as he tried to catch  _ raindrops  _ on his tongue. 

Lance was positively wheezing and it only got worse when he got sight of Keith  _ pouting _ at him. Arms crossed and all. 

He was only able to snap out of it when Keith reached up and pulled the leg of his pants, apparently done waiting for Lance to stop laughing. 

“My god,” Lance said, still catching his breath. The mermaid only tightened the hold he had on Lance’s pants and pulled harder. “Alright, alright, what is it?” He fixed his blue eyes on the mermaid beneath him and squinted his eyes to see through the rain that was now steadily pouring down. 

Keith was holding up his right hand in front of his face and pressing the pointer finger of his left hand to his palm. All the while making tiny beeping noises that Lance could barely make out over the loud sound of the rain landing in the water of Keith’s tank. 

Lance could feel his mouth and eyebrows turn up into a soft smile as he watched the mermaid in front of him imitate his cellphone. He wanted to watch documentaries again. 

Ever since Lance had introduced the powerful sea creature to Netflix’—admittedly, meager—collection of nature docus, Keith had fallen in love with David Attenborough’s soothing voice and the incredible shots of all Earth’s climates and landscapes. His favorites, of course, were the ones featuring the ocean. The first time the wide blue surface of the open ocean had panned in to view, and David had calmly introduced them to “the deep, dark and desolate oceans that are home to an abundance of beautiful - and downright strange - creatures” the mermaid’s eyes had gone wide, his mouth had fallen open and he’d leaned closer to the small screen of Lance’s phone. 

He’d gasped at the sight of the impressively big leatherback turtles and tapped his sharp nails against the turtles’ dark shell. Lance had asked if Keith had seen the leatherbacks in real life, and the mermaid had nodded and only spared Lance a quick look before devoting all of his attention to the various sea creatures. 

Keith continued to imitate Lance’s phone, but with a little chuckle, Lance had to refuse the request. “Sorry, Keith,” he said. “It’s raining. My phone will die.” He reached up a hand to point at the sky. Keith’s eyes followed the finger up to the sky, and as he realized what Lance was talking about, pouted, and slid a bit deeper into the water. 

The two were silent for a few moments as they both listened to the gentle sound of water sloshing and raindrops splashing. Bathing in the moonlight Lance observed the mermaid in front of him. His heart ached at the thought of being unable to see the mermaid every day. But knew it would be best for him. 

Lance sighed. “You know what day it is, right?”

Keith looked up at him. Big, violet eyes reflecting the moon’s white light. He nodded, not breaking eye contact with Lance. 

Did Lance imagine the way Keith’s lips turned down just lightly? 

“Well,” Lance said, pulling at a loose thread on his pants, “you don’t have to be afraid, okay? ‘Cause, everything’s gonna go exactly as we planned it. So, absolutely no need to worry.” He looked up at Keith to find the mermaid gently blinking his eyes at him. 

Keith chirped, soft and worried, and swam a bit closer. He pulled himself up a bit so his face was levelled with Lance. His face was unguarded and open, and Lance kind of wanted to cry at the gentleness with which Keith was looking at him. “A-” Keith started. Lance didn’t dare move a hair, this was the first time he’d ever heard Keith talk. “Awr... yu?” 

Lance blinked at him, too shocked at Keith’s sudden speech to form an answer. Had the mermaid just asked him if he was worried? “Am- am i worried?” Keith nodded. Lance couldn’t help the skeptical laugh that escaped his lips. “Of course I am. If this goes wrong… I don’t even want to think about it.” 

Keith placed a wet, webbed hand on his knees. It was slightly uncomfortable as the cold seeped through his jeans into his already freezing skin, but he wouldn’t dare move as it was clear to him that Keith was trying to comfort him in his own, slightly awkward way. “It wiw be awite.” 

And really, in any other situation Lance might’ve laughed at the mermaid’s mispronunciation of these words, but right now he could only cover Keith’s cold hand with his own warm hand, squeeze lightly and smile at him in gratitude. “Thanks, Keith.” 

“Wewcome.” His grin was bright enough to light the entire world. And all Lance wanted to do was cup his face and press a soft kiss to his lips. 

His hand twitched and for a second he wasn’t gonna do it but,  _ fuck it _ . He reached out with the hand that wasn’t still wrapped around Keith’s, and gently placed it on the mermaid’s cheek. Right across the big scar his capturers had left there the day they’d so forcefully stolen him from his home. 

He took in the picture of Keith. Thick, black hair plastered to his face as the rain continued to fall down onto the two of them. His eyes seemed to be glowing in the dark, a bright violet that Lance couldn’t seem to look away from. His lips, unfairly plump and pink. 

Lance’s thumb reached up and pulled his bottom lip away from the top lip, watching as it fell back. Raindrops landed on those lips and Lance had never wanted to kiss anyone more than he wanted to kiss this mermaid right in front of him. 

And so, he did. 

He leaned forward, his warm breath hitting Keith’s lips as he gave the mermaid one last chance to pull away. When he didn’t, Lance closed the small distance between them and then they were kissing. 

Keith’s lips were… Lance didn’t know where to start. He could wax poetic about their softness, the sweet lingering taste of the strawberries and the wet slide provided by the raindrops that made it all the more pleasurable. 

The mermaid’s hand shifted, and instead of merely resting it in Lance’s hold, he twined their fingers together as much as his webs would allow. Lance breathed out through his nose and shifted his hand to tangle his fingers in the thick strands of Keith’s hair. 

He parted his lips and heard Keith groan softly as he did the same. Lance’s tongue darted out and Keith yelped, abruptly pushing Lance away. 

“Wawas dat?” he shrieked, wiping his mouth clean and frowning up at Lance like the boy had insulted him. 

Lance’s mouth hang open in surprise. “Uhm, that was a kiss?” 

Keith hissed at him. “Why?” 

Lance spluttered for a second and his cheeks flushed red. “W-Why I kissed you?” Keith nodded. “Ehh, because.” He scratched his cheek as he tried to form an answer in his head that didn’t sound creepy. “Ehh, well,” he started, “you see, it’s something people do when… they care a lot about another person.” 

Keith tilted his head and his brows knitted together in confusion. He swam closer to Lance again. 

“Yeah, so,” Lance breathed out, acutely aware of the decreasing distance between them, “my mom always kisses my cheeks,” he swallowed. From this close he could see Keith’s glimmering eyes reflecting the stars and the moon,” and- and my grandmother kisses my forehead. Because…” Keith leaned even closer, face only a few inches away, “they care about…” he held his breath, eyes flitting back to Keith’s lips, “...me.” 

Keith chirped in the back of his throat. The sounds was soft, and Lance was only just able to make it out over the loud sound of the rain. He was looking up at Lance with a puzzled expression, eyebrows knitted and eyes darting across Lance’s face. And was that a pink tint to his cheeks or just Lance projecting his own feelings onto Keith? 

Before Lance could find out the answer to that question, a third voice cut through the rain. Keith promptly dropped back into the water, splashing some of the smelly water into Lance’s face. 

“ _ Lance? Lance! _ ” A man, tall and broad, stood a hundred meters away, shout-whispering into the dark. 

Lance spluttered and spit out the gross pool water before turning around and waving at his friend to attract his attention. 

Hunk walked over, bowed over and trying to make the least sound possible on the creaking metal. When he reached Lance, he crouched down beside him and his eyes trailed over the water’s surface in search of the mermaid. 

“He dived under when he heard you,” Lance explained. 

“Ah,” Hunk nodded, then turned his head to look at his friend. He regarded Lance with an almost pitying look. “Are you… are you ready?” he asked tentatively. 

Lance sighed and watched the raindrops hit the surface for a moment before he turned to his best friend. “I mean, I can’t not be, right? He… he needs to go home.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if I’m going to miss him. All that matters is getting him out of here.” 

As if on cue, the top of Keith’s head popped up, he watched the two men at the side of the pool for a second before apparently deciding that it was okay to show his whole face. He looked at Hunk warily and chirped softly in question.

Lance watched as the two regarded each other. “Ehh, Keith, you know Hunk.” 

Hunk waved a bit awkwardly. Lance could understand. The glare the mermaid shooting his way would’ve made his knees a bit weak, too. 

“Well, ehh,” Lance said, talking past the lump that was starting to form in the back of his throat. “I guess it’s time to get going, right?” 

Hunk nodded a bit solemnly, sensing Lance’s dread at having to say goodbye to his new friend. “Yeah. Pidge sent me the all-clear. We better get moving.” 

Lance nodded and looked back at Keith. The mermaid was looking back at him with the biggest eyes he’d ever seen. The rain relentlessly poured down at the three of them. “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s go.”

 

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ _i said, don’t be afraid, we’re going home_ 　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

 

It was still raining. Loud drops ticking against the car’s window. His fingers were tangled into thick, black strands that were still a bit damp. He petted the back of Keith’s head and looked down at the peaceful face of the mermaid in his lap.

Keith’s cheek was squished against Lance’s leg. His dark eyes were watching the raindrops trail down the window. His hands were tucked underneath his chin and he was breathing softly through his mouth. 

Lance stroked his cheek and Keith’s lashes fluttered close. The mermaid nuzzled into his leg a bit, and Lance’s heart melted. He wanted to live in this moment forever. 

One look at the way Keith’s tail was folded to fit into the small car made him think better of it. The boy in his lap deserved the world. And his world was deep underwater. 

Keith’s little chirp shook Lance out of his depressing train of thought and he lifted his hand to gently stroke the other boy’s cheek. Keith sighed a little and closed his eyes. Lance continued the stroke the soft skin, unaware of the look of concern Pidge and Hunk shared. 

It was still raining when they arrived at the pier. 

The moon and her stars were trying to shine their light down on the four figures stumbling down the pier. 

Lance was holding Keith’s upper body, the mermaid’s arms wrapped tightly around his neck and his breathing puffing out over the sensitive skin of his neck. Hunk was carrying the heaviest part of the dark red tail, and Pidge the lighter part at the end. With the three of them, they carried the mermaid to the edge of the pier, where waves lapped at the wood and spilled over their feet. 

“Whoo, you’re heavy,” Pidge said, voice strained to sound light-hearted and joking. 

Keith rolled his eyes and Lance smiled at her. “M’not.” Keith mumbled. 

Lance chuckled. “You kinda are.” 

Keith glared at him, but it lacked real hatred. 

The four of them shuffled forward onto the pier, the old wood moaning and sighing under their feet. When they finally reached the edge of the water, they carefully lowered the mermaid onto the wood. His red tail made a wet sound as it his the hard surface. 

Lance watched Keith’s tail twitch as the mermaid leaned forward onto his hands to look out over the ocean. 

Without either of them noticing, Pidge and Hunk backed up and made their way back to the car. 

“This is your home, Keith,” Lance said. He smiled at the excited face of his friend. “You’re home.” 

The mermaid turned his head to look at Lance. He nodded slowly and leaned away from the water and closer to Lance. “I miss you,” he said. 

“I’ll miss you too, buddy.” Lance smiled sadly at him. “But, you’re finally free again.” He tapped Keith’s nose with his finger. “And that’s most important.” He looked away from Keith’s hypnotizing eyes and made a shooing motion towards the sea. “Now, go on. Dive in.” 

When he looked back, the mermaid was grinning at him. Complete collection of pointy teeth on display and eyes crinkling in the corners. 

It took Lance’s breath away. 

But before Lance could properly burn the image into his memory, the mermaid was leaning forward and pressed a soft kiss to Lance’s lips. 

When he leaned back again he was still smiling. “‘Cause I care,” he said. And with that, he dove under. 

Lance watched as the red figure of his mermaid’s tail glittered in the moonlight until he was too far away to see. He closed his eyes and listened to the gentle lapping of the waves. He breathed in the salty ocean air and felt the breeze ruffle his hair and clothes. 

He didn’t know how long he sat there, but when he looked up again, the moon had gone down a bit more, and the stars were fading a little bit, preparing for sunrise. He stood and dusted his clothes off. 

A slight glimmering caught his eye. He bowed down and there, on the wood of the pier, lay the prettiest red scale Lance had ever seen. He carefully picked it up and clutched it to his heart. 

Looking out over the gentle ocean he whispered, “See you soon, Keith.” 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> my twt is [right here](https://twitter.com/lvecean) if you want to be my friend!!
> 
> thanks for reading!! <333


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